People's Democracy

Saffron Govt Fails Now In Tenth Standard

NOW the BJP government of Madhya Pradesh has failed in the tenth standard examinations. Out of the declared results of 6,57,574 students, only 2,23,380 have passed. The results have been still worse for the �private� students --- only 5,056 out of 56,766. Some of the failed students have committed suicide out of despair.

Though the school education sector in the state has been performing very miserably over the past few decades, it has grown worse over the last ten years. The following table illustrates the point.

Pass Percentages In Schools

As usual, a committee was formed to go into the causes of so poor results while yet another is to be formed soon. The education minister has given herself a clean chit, blaming instead her officers for the suicides. On their part, these officers are coming up now and then with one or another excuse. The media in the state, more loyal than the king, is also justifying these excuses.

To add insult to the parents� injury, the rulers and their officer henchmen did not refrain from getting their self-congratulatory statements printed along with their broad grinning smiles.

Expressing grief and concern over these results, the state unit of the CPI(M) has demanded an independent probe into this poor performance, by a team of eminent academicians, parents and students.

A statement issued by the CPI(M)�s state secretariat said blaming the country�s democratic system for any ill is a dangerous and irresponsible tendency. This was not the first occasion when exams were held before a general election, a few times they were held in between parliamentary or assembly polls, but the results were never so poor in the past. The statement pointed out that polls engage a teacher only for five or six days, while useless RSS brand Surya Namaskars gobble up 15 to 20 days.

The CPI(M) has said the state�s BJP government is to be blamed for this total paralysis of the education system. In place of making regular appointments for teacher posts, it is engaging low-paid temporary teachers on contract basis. Moreover, unusual workloads are being imposed upon these hapless teachers. This is the root cause of the education sector�s crisis in the state, and the unprecedented power crisis has added to its gravity. (Utter darkness prevailed in most parts of the state during the exam days, darkening the future of the students as well.) The CPI(M) has also pointed out that ever since the state government allowed its employees to attend the RSS shakhas, a large number of teachers are regularly being forced to collect dakshina for the RSS, and this too is reflected in the exam results.

The CPI(M) has appealed to the educationists, teachers and student organisations in the state to take initiative for an end to the existing education policy, for institution of an alternative policy, and for forcing the BJP government of the state to tender an apology to all concerned people for its utterly ruinous record on the education front. (JS)